All posts tagged Mini-Golf

Putting was probably the furthest thing from the minds of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island, but the huddled masses yearning to shoot under par are the inspiration behind a new mini-golf course in Jersey City.

Amy Sussman for The Wall Street Journal

A mini-golf hole by artist Hiroshi Kumagai draws on his own experience as a Japanese immigrant. See more photos.

Local artists are designing and building 10 miniature golf holes to reflect the dreams and travails of the 12 million people who passed through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954. Many of these immigrants settled in Jersey City to work in factories and on the Hudson River docks.

The Golden Door Mini-Golf Course, which opens Wednesday and will hold tee times through Labor Day, borrows its name from Jersey City’s moniker as America’s Golden Door, a nod to the city’s role in immigration.

“The project is a perception of the Golden Door–what it’s like to go to it, through it and turn the corner from it,” said Christina Vassallo, the project’s curator.

One of the holes has a ramp that symbolizes a gangway to the ships that carried immigrants to the U.S. Another uses a model of the Stairs of Separation at the end the Great Hall on Ellis Island where people were admitted into the country or detained for health reasons or visa problems. Read More »